Episode 22: Who was Cotton Mather? (Part II)

After another hiatus (the last one of the summer–promise!) we return to conclude our conversation with Rick Kennedy on Cotton Mather.

His father, Increase Mather (yes, that was his first name; no, we didn’t ask why, and if we ever knew, we forgot), died just five years before Cotton did. So for almost his entire life, Cotton was his father’s associate pastor. While Increase was writing sermons, and theology, and butting into politics, and sailing off to London, Cotton was walking around the North End of Boston visiting the sick, the dying, and all the other “pastoral” things that his father didn’t do.

So this week we talk about Cotton the Pastor, and Cotton the Bostonian; as well as Cotton the Harvard Man. Enjoy.